Writing Party History

Papers from a Seminar held at Parliament House, Sydney, May 2006

On 20 May 2006 a seminar on writing party history was held at Parliament House, Sydney as part of the commemoration of the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in New South Wales.

Historians, political scientists and practitioners of politics both past and present came together in a way that has rarely been attempted before to discuss researching and writing the history of both the major political parties and minor parties and independents in New South Wales. Contributors included Bob Carr, Rodney Cavalier, Steve Chase, John Faulkner, Graham Freudenberg, Murray Goot, Jim Hagan, Ian Hancock, Stuart Macintyre, Rod Tiffen and Peter Westerway.

This book contains the papers from the seminar. Topics covered are: diaries, memoirs and reportage; writing the history of political parties; the genres of party history; the fundamental sources. The result is a diverse, stimulating and entertaining collection of essays that sheds new light on these imortant institutions,

CONTENTS

Introduction

Rodney Cavalier

Part 1 Diaries, Memoirs and Reportage

Diary keeping: A personal perspective

Bob Carr

Using diaries and memoirs

Rodney Cavalier

Reporting the Whitlam wars

Peter Westerway

Reporting from the press gallery: The practicalities and problems of immediacy

Steve Chase

Spin and history

Rodney Tiffen

Part 2 Writing Party Histories

Writing Party Histories: Some Introductory Thoughts

Andrew Tink

The Liberal Party

Ian Hancock

The Progressives, Country Party and Nationals

Paul Davey

Labor History

Graham Freudenberg

Communist Party History

Stuart Macintyre

Minor Parties and Independents in New South Wales

Rodney Smith

Part 3 The Genres of Party History

Writing a regional political history of New South Wales 1856-2006

Jim Hagan

Politics and parties in New England: discoveries, problems, solutions and future directions

Frank Bongiorno

Tracing the rise and fall of constituencies in regional New South Wales

Bradley Bowden

A view from below: report on a case study of Glebe

Michael Hogan

Writing the federal ALP caucus centenary history

John Faulkner

Electoral democrarcy in New South Wales: parties, the press and popular participation 1856-2003

Sean Scalmer and Murray Goot

Part 4 The Fundamental Sources

Newspapers as a source for part history

Michael Hogan

Creating an electronic bibliography of theses relating to New South Wales political history

Jim Hagan

Sources then and now

Ken Turner

REVIEWS

This edited collection of contributions to a one-day seminar form a kind of summing-up of the work of the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in NSW Committee. This Committee was set up in 2002 and has funded over thirty projects related to political history of the NSW Parliament since the coming of responsible government in 1856. Many of the authors of those projects participated in thie seminar and contributed to this volume...

The contributors to Writing Party History provide valuable insights for others who intend to take up this unfinished task.